Property Updates, Delta Air, and chilled Malbecs and more…

I received some tennis court update photos from our hard working crew in San Rafael. All I can say is wow!

I think this is the first time I’ve ever actually seen a tennis court constructed from scratch. The speed with which this is moving along is very impressive. You can really get a sense from this photo of how unique our tennis center will be; set right in the middle of a beautiful 50 year old olive grove. It’s really going to be an amazing place, and we look forward to our guests playing on those courts in just a few short months!

I also received a great Algodon Mansion update from Gerhard Heusch. The glass for the six-story lightwell (which will include a waterfall descending to the lobby) is now being installed. Here’s picture of them working on it:

This aspect of the Mansion is very unique. Each suite has either door or window access to the lightwell, which offers sky views.

Good news for us in NYC: starting mid December of this year, Delta Air Lines provide flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Buenos Aires, Argentina! The flights will operate five times a week!

The Washington Post’s recent article titled “Ah, a Cold, Refreshing ... Red?” talks of the surprising joys of chilled Malbecs on a hot summer day. From the article; “Malbec is very much the red wine of the moment, responsible for a stunning surge of imports into the U.S. from Argentina…Malbec has spicy, black-pepper tastes and we really weren’t sure ourselves how well it would stand up to a chill. The answer: fascinating…With a steak right off the grill or a rare hamburger, it would be hard to beat this taste on a hot day.”

I also found two articles this week regarding the U.S. debt and the weakening dollar. The first is from Yahoo! Finance, and the second The Washington Post. Both are worth the read as the country prepares for next year, and on. This is what I have been saying all along, it is prudent and timely that investors diversify outside the U.S. economy and into global assets. The dollar is still strong against the peso, and Argentine properties remain undervalued.

--Scott Mathis

Truffles, and a lot of press for AWE!

Our bimonthly newsletter came out this week, and if you’ve already checked it out you will have noticed the introduction to our newest potential asset to Algodon Wine Estates; the cultivation of black and white truffles. We’ll have more information on this as the summer progresses, but in the meantime we’re very excited about the prospect and what it could mean for our estate. I believe we’ve already created an extraordinarily unique and very valuable development there in San Rafael, Mendoza, and recent details such as bottling our own estate-grown extra virgin olive oil, cultivating truffles, making some incredible vintages and providing super-recreational championship golf, tennis, and polo only serves to create even more value in worth as well as in reputation.

Also this week, Algodon gets even more full page write ups; this time in the latest issue of Unique Homes magazine. Titled On Location: The Next Napa Valley. It’s available on your local newsstand, open to page 42! Algodon Mansion also appears at the bottom of the page. Unique Homes magazine focuses on luxury real estate, and targets high-end consumers and sellers. It has a circulation of over 70,000 readers and topics covered include “European castles, oceanfront contemporaries, world-class resort properties and luxurious hideaways.” Algodon Wine Estates is also currently featured on the Elite Traveler website, which receives approximately 80,000 hits per month. We also appear in the newsstand copy of the magazine, which has a circulation of 135,000. They focus on luxury travel and target affluent readers throughout the U.S., so this is another great outlet for Algodon! In just a few weeks we’ll be appearing in United Airlines’ in-flight Hemispheres Magazine which has a print run of 250,000, with a readership of 7.5 million! That’s an incredible number! And last but not least, we also appear in 944 Magazine (circulation: 245,000!) on newsstands now. 944 focuses on fashion, entertainment and luxury lifestyles, with separate editions in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Orange County, Phoenix, San Diego and San Francisco. Topics covered include health, fitness, nightlife, restaurants, latest styles and trends, music, art, film, interior design and travel. This has been an amazing month in the media for us!

In other news, Harpers Wine & Spirit online magazine tells us that Argentine wine exports are up in volume and value. That great news in today’s economic climate! Of course, Malbec is the most exported varietal accounting for a hefty 28% of the volume.

--Scott Mathis

Algodon Wine Estates updates, and other news…

Here is a preview of what our tennis courts may look like after construction is completed in just a few short months. I came across this photo in my email archives, and wanted to share it. These courts were built by the same contractors who are currently building ours. It’s exciting to try and picture. Obviously ours will look even better than this with our Grand Center Court that seats nearly 700 people and is sunken into the ground for panoramic views from above. We’ll also have 8 clay courts, 2 grass courts, and 1 hard court.

Rubén Barsamian sent me the next photo earlier in the week. It shows one of our contractors leveling the courts. As I may have mentioned before, except for the Grand Center Court, as of today the land has all been leveled:

I also received photo updates on the two new reservoirs on our (recently expanded) golf course this week. Here you can see that they have lined the pond in anticipation for its filling:

Very exciting, and all of this will only add even more value to our already remarkable estate.

Earlier this week the New York Times ran this piece on the revitalization of the Barracas barrio in Buenos Aires. This neighborhood is experiencing “spillover rejuvenation from neighboring Puerto Madero and San Telmo, two areas that have benefited from a rise in tourism and a real estate boom. Barracas, near the city’s old ports, means barracks or warehouses. Long since abandoned, many warehouses are being renovated into luxury housing…” Sounds like the “Soho effect”. I’d be curious to know if the article had any immediate impact on real estate sales for the area. I’m betting it did…

--Scott Mathis

Polo, Dakar, GM bailout, and Art…

Hola! Nacho Figueras explains the rules of polo in Vanity Fair Magazine. In case you don’t know, Nacho is synonymous with Argentina polo. Nacho was recently our guest for a wine tasting and cocktail reception at Algodon Mansion. (pictured from left to right: Nacho Figueras, Me, Luisa Aldao, German Neuss, Camilo Aldao, and Nacho’s lovely wife Delfina):

Last weekend he and Great Britain’s Prince Harry played the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic, a celebrity attended charity match at New York’s Governors’ Island. The competing teams were Black Watch and Sentebale, and the British team won 6-5. This brings to mind the construction of Algodon Wine Estates’ own twin polo fields scheduled for completion next year. Polo is very big in Argentina, and our Champions’ Club will feature only the best of these types of facilities.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Dakar Rally will return to Argentina in 2010. The map of next year’s route is now available online, and it indeed runs right through San Rafael! What a great publicity and promotional opportunity for the city, and in turn Algodon Wine Estates. As you can imagine, the hotel was also fully booked when the rally came through earlier this year.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announces that the country will use $70 million of nationalized pension funds to provide General Motors (Argentine unit) with a loan to help the automaker finish work on a new car model. Finally, here’s a CNN video link to a report on the Buenos Aires International Art Fair (aka “ArteBA”), which has been called “the hottest art event on the planet”. One gallery owner interviewed explains how the combination of Argentina’s weak peso and the world-wide economic downturn is presenting lucrative opportunities for the county’s artists. Evidently savvy international collectors have realized that Argentina offers world-class pieces of art for unheard-of prices, and they are loading up on these great deals. That’s called “getting in when the getting is good” and similarly-minded people are doing the same with real estate there, obviously.

--Scott Mathis